GRE : Reading Comprehension

Example-1

Passage

All of Francoise Duparc’s surviving paintings blend portraiture and genre. Her subjects appear to be acquaintances whom she has asked to pose. She has captured both their self-consciousness and the spontaneity of their everyday activities, the depiction of which characterizes genre paintings. But, genre painting, especially when it portrayed members of the humblest classes, was never popular in eighteenth century France. The Le Nain brothers and Georges de La Tour, who also chose such themes, were largely ignored. Their present high standing is due to a different, more democratic political climate and to different aesthetic values. We no longer require artists to provide images of humanity for our moral edification but rather regard idealization as a falsification of truth. Duparc gives no improving message and discretely refrains from judging her subjects. In brief, her works neither elevate not instruct. This restraint largely explains her lack of popular success during her lifetime, even if her talent did not go completely unrecognized by her eighteenth century French contemporaries.

According to the passage, modern viewers are not likely to value which of the following qualities in a painting?

(A) The technical elements of a painting

(B) The spontaneity of the painting

(C) The moral lesson imported by the painting

(D) The degree to which the painting realistically depicts its subject

(E) The painting to which the artist’s personality is reviewed in the painting

Analysis

The phrase “modern viewers" does not occur explicitly in the passage. But 7th sentence states, “we no longer require artists to provide images of humanity for our moral edification". So, according to the passage, modern viewers are not likely to look for moral lessons from artistic paintings.